Just had a slightly tearful goodbye meeting where they brought in some old colleagues too for my goodbye. Have handed in all my gear and am off to the pub while I wait for other peeps to finish and join me! Feeling.
Update on the diverse lifestyle magpies in my street, as of last night. Old Mrs magpie has moved 3 streets over and found a new (male) mate known to all as the Admiral (a long term resident), but still enjoys rolled oats from my hand. She hasn't built a nest yet. Young Mrs magpie has taken a young male mate (as yet unnamed by us), and has built a nest just over the road in a street tree. It's too far up to see if there are eggs yet, but we can hope. The young male, who is a complete dill and alternates between doing his duty by feeding young Mrs magpie, and begging food from her. He doesn't take food from humans yet, though young Mrs magpie has started doing so for the first time just a week ago. We think he's still learning how to do husbanding properly, but as he's less than 2 years old that's not surprising. Young Mrs magpie is also about 2 years old. Will keep you all updated on this teenage romance.
I should have tidied up my stationery earlier - I found $100!!!
I recall a couple of years ago thinking I must have been overly optimistic in my estimates of how much money I had received from selling some of my stuff, I guess I was right after all. Shoving my cash inside a random notebook until I could put it in the bank seemed like a good idea at the time.
I've had a wonderful start to the week. Since it's book week I got invited to a couple of schools. I did some talking about my books and writing and read a couple of chapters to kids from grades 3/4 and 5/6. I asked the kids if they liked scary stories, and then what scary stories they like and one kid said 'Revenge of the Flightless' which had me all teary-eyed.
Also scored a box of chocolates.
Yesterday I was a 'celebrity' reader for another school so I read a couple of chapters to about 40 kids who mostly seemed enthralled (though I am sure I heard one kid whispering 'this is boring' lol). And after that I did a writing workshop. I thought I'd get like 5 kids interested, but had 30. It was like my own classroom and we started thinking about stories and how we write them and I got them to talk about scary experiences in their lives and how we can use them as ideas for stories, creating characters and all that. It was really fun.
I got the 92 on my assignment.
I was also told that the librarian at my daughters school (who recently bought my books for their library) is reading them and really likes them.
This morning I got a message from the parent of one of the kids in the workshop thanking me for doing it and how her son came home talking about it, and being confident in sharing his work (I mentioned at the end to not be afraid of sharing their work with friends and family and how it took me 35 years to have that courage).
And finally, I volunteered to read in my daughters class this morning (not my books) and I got to see a glimpse of how classrooms look and work before I got to read. It went well which was good and my daughters face was priceless (despite her asking me to do it).
There was a lovely story yesterday about a Jack Russell who alerted a neighbour that her owner was having a medical emergency and basically saved the owners life.
My husband: Gee some dogs are smart. Some have jobs and do some remarkable stuff. Your dog eats tissues.
Can someone tell me what planet is in retrograde or why I have such random anxiety today? There's no reason but it's been shocking all day. I had a great night's sleep last night too...
The new double edge razor brush for cats has already removed 4 knots from Ted, the annoying one under his chin too. Poor little guy, he didn't ask for all that fur. ( I have to wear gloves or Ted shreds me )
After so much bullshit and fighting I got an assignment extension for 3 days! This really takes off the edge and gives me much more breathing space... thank fuck.
Progress is still slow, but solid, and definitely adding up. I'm starting to feel less shitty about my reduced mental capacity and more excited about being back in the world of logic and empirical data, not just lazy opinions. Got to chat to some people that really lifted my spirits/rejuvenated things and made me feel like maybe this is all actually heading somewhere meaningful.
I'm going to feel PARTICULARLY great once I get this thing off my plate though! I can just feel the satisfaction already.
Omg JLo is so cringe. Fancy making a film about how much in love you apparently are, only to divorce the love interest for the second time a few months later.
I googled to find out what the best meal replacement shakes are and canstar strongly recommended Aldi's one. The trouble with Aldi is that you can never be sure you can get what you want there. I just got back from Aldi and sure enough.. nope no sign of them. If I did manage to get some and wanted to use them regularly there'd be a chance they just wouldn't have them the next time I needed some. I'm really really underwhelmed by Aldi in general so this didn't help. I did grab a bag of coffee beans though.
Meanwhile.. I've invited someone over for dinner next week. Any suggestions on what I should cook? As far as I know there aren't any special dietary requirements but I might actually double check on that.
Roadworks in my street today. Wonder how long it'll last this time. It's only been a couple of years since the last lot, and my street is only 10 houses long!
dumb question, is everyone elses bedside draw full of... junk? I've got cables, old watches that still work but I rarely wear, headphones, but nothing I actually use? Theres no better place for some of it, but it ends up being a draw full of rarely used stuff.
Melbcat has another uti - or the previous one still isnโt gone. My poor little pudding. Iโve shelled out for a lab culture and weโre looking at a stronger course of the strong antibiotics (with a risk of blindness).
Sheโs getting force fed pain meds to ensure sheโs covered. Iโll look after her
I've decided I'm gonna make horses doovers for dinner on Friday (perhaps). So far I've got devilled eggs, blinis with smoked salmon, bruschetta and mini sausage rolls.
I'm trying to include all the important 5 food groups, butter, cheese, bread, pastry and cucumber. It's gonna be so classy with beer.